The couple had been drinking tequila shots before the incident. Photo / Getty Images

A doctor who ripped her husband’s scrotum with her finger nails after a night of downing shots of tequila has been cleared of wounding.

Vianey Manzanillo De La Cruz, 32, admitted ripping banker Alexandre Daband’s testicles during a row at his flat in Bermondsey, south London in April last year.

She was acquitted at the Old Bailey after a jury heard that she was protecting herself from the drunken violence of her husband.

Manzanillo, originally from the Dominican Republic, wept in court as she described how the banker repeatedly hit her after vomiting from a tequila binge.

She said the Frenchman was dragging her by the hair when she reached up behind to defend herself.

Jurors took less than an hour to clear her of charges of wounding with intent and unlawful wounding at the Old Bailey.

Earlier on in the trial the court heard how the couple, who are now estranged, went out on the night of April 4, and drunk tequila shots before heading to a nightclub in the West End.She collapsed in tears and the Recorder of London, Nicholas Hilliard, had to warn supporters in the public gallery to be silent when they began to applaud.

They were told that it was too late to use their VIP tickets and Daband, who had drunk more than his wife, was sick outside the venue.

He was sick again on the way home and vomited again once they returned home, jurors heard.

Prosecutor George Heimler said that Manzanillo suggested her husband should have a shower and started spraying him with cold water once he went in.

Daband said he pushed his wife away and went to bed but was woken a short time later.

He told the court that his wife removed the duvet before climbing on top of him. The banker admitted striking Manzanillo on the face to get her off.

The prosecutor said: “She then left the room and comes back with a large umbrella and starts hitting him. She did brandish a knife at one stage.”

Daband admitted he grabbed his wife’s hair, claiming he was trying to throw her out of the flat.

He told the jury: “This time she grabbed me by the testicles with one hand. She grabbed with some force and because of that I have been injured.”

Daband said his wife had 1cm-long fingernails thought to have caused the injury. He phoned an ambulance when he realised he was bleeding.

He said he received stitches, stayed in hospital overnight, and when released had to change bandages on his wound for about a month.

Manzanillo was arrested in the early hours of April 5 last year after she phoned police and was later interviewed.

The prosecutor said: “Essentially, her account was that her husband was extremely drunk. He had been drinking tequila.

“He asked her to leave the property, then he attacked her. He was dragging her around and during the course of that, in order to protect herself, she scratched his scrotum. She insisted she was not drunk at the time and acted in self defence.”

He explained to the jury that the issue was not if Manzanillo had injured her husband, but whether she had done so unlawfully.

Manzanillo, of north London, denies unlawful wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm.